We spent 2013 obsessing over image quality at the Orbital HQ. Not only does the front page have more of them than ever before, but our brilliant tech team built out full-width galleries and started creating custom design layouts that demand something more than PR images and stick figures. Needless to say, this would become an all-staff challenge.

2013 marked our first full year with this visual focus, and, looking back on what we have to offer, it's been a pleasant surprise. We took a few moments to reflect on some of our favorite Ars images from the year that was, and they're shared below for all your "Open Image In New Tab>Save As" wallpaper-making needs.

Rocket speed and rocket work

Lee Hutchinson

An F-1 engine on display at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Author's wife at right for scale.

Lee Hutchinson

An F-1 engine on display at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Author's wife at right for scale.

Lee Hutchinson

The gas generator firing. Visible emerging from the nozzle is the dark, fuel-rich exhaust, which takes a bit of time to completely burn. This is characteristic of gas generator exhausts.

Lee Hutchinson

Probably the best shot I was able to take of one of the cars flying past the paddock.

Reviews Editor Lee Hutchinson has a job even his father doesn't believe. But in between taking copious notes on everything from LEGO bricks to water-repellent miracle materials, Hutchinson will step behind the camera and capture some wonder for the rest of us to see. Among his favorite images from 2013 are the above trio, bursting with power. "This [first] shot shows my darling wife standing next to a Rocketdyne F-1 engine," he says. "This is the largest single-chamber liquid-fueled rocket engine ever actually built, producing 1.5 million lbs of thrust and gulping down one ton of fuel and two tons of oxidizer per second—and a Saturn V moon rocket was powered by five of them. Everything about it was enormous, especially the engines required to start it on its journey from the Earth to the Moon."

From the same story—"How NASA brought the monstrous F-1 'moon rocket' engine back to life'"—Hutchinson captures the behemoth in action. "This is the gas generator of a 40-year-old F-1 engine being fired," he says. "The F-1’s gas generator shown firing here pumps out 31,000 lbs of thrust—more than an F-16 fighter’s engine at full military power—and all of that sound and fury is needed just to drive the pumps that send fuel into the main engine. Rocket science: it’s awesome."

The last image is from Hutchinson's day at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, for the story "Gallery: Ars goes behind the scenes with the Caterham F1 racing team." As he quickly learned, even a shutter speed of 1/500 doesn't quite freeze an F1 car's motion. For his favorite piece of experimentation, Hutchinson tries freezing the foreground against a moving background as the Formula 1 cars zoom around on their practice laps.

Astronaut Chris Cassidy models a current-generation EMU ("Extravehicular Mobility Unit") while being lowered into the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory pool for a spacewalk simulation.

All that is cool, but our resident NASA neighbor's greatest visual contribution (quite possibly the coolest Ars piece of the year) documents the organization's giant training pool procedures in "Swimming with spacemen: training for spacewalks at NASA’s giant pool." The entire story is visually driven, with a custom layout and countless images, but Hutchinson looks back on the two above as his favorites. In the first image, astronaut Chris Cassidy waits patiently during a hold while companion astronaut Luca Parmitano’s suit radio is checked. In the second, the issue has been resolved and the dive proceeds. For a man whose job is typically experiencing awesomeness, Hutchinson says "This was easily one of the most awesome things I’ve ever gotten to witness."

Games and the gamers that love 'em

Andrew Cunningham

Frank Lee, Drexel computer science professor and co-founder and co-director of Drexel's game design program, introduces his game on Friday night.

Andrew Cunningham

Frank Lee, Drexel computer science professor and co-founder and co-director of Drexel's game design program, introduces his game on Friday night.

Andrew Cunningham

Cross this one off the old bucket list: I've now played the world's biggest game of Pong.

Senior Products Specialist Andrew Cunningham fondly remembers an after hours assignment in Philadelphia, reporting for the story "Selling, coding, and playing the 'world's largest video game.'" "The short version of the story is that a Drexel computer science professor worked for five years to convince the owners of an office building in Philly to use the building’s programmable LEDs to create a video game," he recalls. "After they got approval, they essentially created an API for the light grid, on top of which they’ve built working versions of Pong, Snake, and Space Invaders among others." He says the building is a little dark in the images "because nighttime," but it's still among our favorite visuals from 2013. (Cunningham's story has video of the game in action too.)

Kyle Orland

Yeah, I'm in Akihabara. Meet me by the shop with the creepy-yet-welcoming 20-foot-wide man in the striped shirt.

Kyle Orland

Yeah, I'm in Akihabara. Meet me by the shop with the creepy-yet-welcoming 20-foot-wide man in the striped shirt.

Kyle Orland

The characteristic sign for Super Potato, probably the best-known retro game store in Akihabara. Going in was like entering a dream for me.

As you might expect, Gaming Editor Kyle Orland has his fair share of unusual sights from flying around the world covering gaming events. The first trip that came to mind is from the story "The gaikokujin gamer’s guide to Akihabara, Japan’s 'Electric Town.'" "I was incredibly jet-lagged and incredibly sick with a sinus infection/head cold after my day-long flight to Japan, but I was determined not to give up my opportunity to explore the fabled Akihabara nerd shopping mecca," he says. "At one point, I was so tired and medicine-heady I would have gladly walked in to the warm embrace of that 20-foot man in the striped shirt."

Andrew Cunningham

The sprawling lobby is home to an information desk, a store, and a whole bunch of video game enthusiasts. (E3)

Andrew Cunningham

The sprawling lobby is home to an information desk, a store, and a whole bunch of video game enthusiasts. (E3)

Andrew Cunningham

It's-a him! Kyle! (E3)

Andrew Cunningham

BRAAAAIIINNNNS! (E3)

Andrew Cunningham

HEY GUYS, IT'S DRAKE. (E3)

Andrew Cunningham

Kyle is suitably impressed by the Killer Instinct fightstick. (E3)

Kyle Orland

TO ENTER THE EXPO HALL YOU FIRST MUST BEST ME IN FIVE FEATS OF STRENGTH! (PAX East)

Orland's other favorites span some of the best annual gaming experiences—E3, E3 console launches, PAX East, and PAX. "The most memorable visual of E3 was the Sony booth that was absolutely crawling with costumed characters from famous PlayStation franchises," Orland says (see Plants v. Zombies above or perhaps PaRappa The Rapperis more your speed). "(But) the main memory dredged up by these photos is me not actually knowing who Drake was when he walked out at the EA press conference with huge letters spelling DRAKE behind him. This is because I am old and out of touch with youth culture."

As for the double dose of PAX, he recalls cosplay as all the rage. "The most shocking thing about PAX East cosplay this year was the fact that there were quite a few BioShock Infinite costumes a full week before the game actually hit stores—that's a sign of good marketing!" Orland says. "[At PAX,] I couldn't stop laughing at this photo of a sad, salaryman Deku Kid all grown up. By far the most original and thought provoking cosplay of the show for me."

Mice, medieval wars, "Mommy!" cries

Thomas Balla, Collinswood Designs Inc. in Fort Collins

Microscopes aren't limited to taking pictures of living things. Many substances form crystals that, on small scales, reveal stunning details that can't be seen with our eyes. This image is of sulfoslicylic acid, a close chemical relative of aspirin.

Thomas Balla, Collinswood Designs Inc. in Fort Collins

Microscopes aren't limited to taking pictures of living things. Many substances form crystals that, on small scales, reveal stunning details that can't be seen with our eyes. This image is of sulfoslicylic acid, a close chemical relative of aspirin.

Zhong Hua, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

It's... a mouse! This image relied on fluorescent labeling and confocal microscopy to create a 3D image stack. The fluorescent items in this case are the axons, projections created by nerves as they reach out to link up with the mouse's body. The green label lights up sensory neurons, which arise in segmented structures that flank the spine. Red and blue are motorneurons, which control the muscles.

Steven Michael

Bullseye from 1,000 yards.

Lee Hutchinson

Selfie at Mach 0.6 and 13,000 feet.

Jonah Gallagher

Armies face off during a bridge battle at Bellus Aeternum II in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

Here's a final grab bag before we end with the true Ars image-maker of the year. Science Editor John Timmer contributes the first two pictures from the story "Images from the glorious world around us that we never see." These are from a contest demonstrating the remarkable work being done with the microscope lenses Nikon makes.

Next, some Hutchinson pseudo-selfies—shooting a $17,000 Linux-powered rifle and testing a Nokia Lumia 1520 at Mach 0.6 speeds. While the Folland Gnat training clearly rules, Hutchinson admits he's fonder of the former. "Trackingpoint is an interesting company, with a product that straddles several different areas. Our coverage of them has been focused on the technology that they’ve crammed into their rifles, which enables even novice shooters (like my cameraman, Steve Michael) to nail targets at distances of up to 1000 yards. I have to admit that I included this image because I think I look totally badass."

Promoted Comments

Come to think of it, the quality of the article pics has improved lately. Funny how sometimes we miss the forest for the trees.

That said, I think on April 1st this year you should do all your article pics in MS Paint just to see if anyone remembers not only this article in general, but all the effort that goes into making a quality article.

Come to think of it, the quality of the article pics has improved lately. Funny how sometimes we miss the forest for the trees.

That said, I think on April 1st this year you should do all your article pics in MS Paint just to see if anyone remembers not only this article in general, but all the effort that goes into making a quality article.

The quality of article images on this site is like the whipped cream on a delicious banana split. It's not why I come here, but I couldn't imagine the site without them. There was actually a time earlier this year when I saw a bunch of great images heading articles, and Aurich didn't have a credit on any of them. I was so disappointed because I thought he had left, since the stuff was easily creative director-level work, but it turns out that you've just got talent all the way down. Nice job.

Also, unrelated, but in a bunch of the bitcoin articles, there are pictures showing what looks like physical bitcoins. I assumed they were CG mockups until I saw similar things around the web. Are those actual products?

Also, unrelated, but in a bunch of the bitcoin articles, there are pictures showing what looks like physical bitcoins. I assumed they were CG mockups until I saw similar things around the web. Are those actual products?